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Gardiner Expressway: Councillors play the blame game

Right-wingers cite neglected repairs by the Miller administration; left-wingers say Ford cancelled a 2008 study, leaving council in the dark on alternatives.

The Gardiner Expressway cuts a line through the heart of Toronto's downtown, here looking toward the east. (DAVID COOPER / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

The underside of the Gardiner Expressway is seen near Spadina. Amidst the revelation that the Gardiner is becoming structurally unstable, councillors blame each other. (RICHARD LAUTENS / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

By Robyn DoolittleUrban Affairs Reporter

Wed., Dec. 12, 2012

One month from now, city council will be asked to make a half-billion decision on the fate of the Gardiner Expressway without crucial information as to whether the highway is worth the cost of fixing.

A $7.7 million study commissioned by council in 2008 was supposed to investigate whether it would make financial sense to tear down the eastern portion of the elevated highway (from Jarvis St. east), rather than pour millions into deteriorating infrastructure with a limited lifespan.

But that report, which council’s right wing feared might make the argument for demolition, was mysteriously shelved after Mayor Rob Ford took office. Now left-wing councillors say they are being asked to blindly make a $505-million decision.

“The city is being asked to make the biggest road decision it’s made in 50 years without any information,” said Councillor Gord Perks, who was vice-chair of the public works committee when the study was ordered. “I don’t even know if it’s legal for us to decide to take it down without (professional) advice.”

City staff say that unless half a billion dollars is allocated to tear up and rebuild about half of the Gardiner over the next decade, parts of the highway will be unsafe to drive on in as little as six years. The debate begins in January, months ahead of a report that city staff are supposed to deliver on the structural state of the more than 50-year-old bridge.

“I worry that the administration has tried to back the city of Toronto into a corner where it has no options,” Perks said.

At issue is the fact that if a massive Gardiner rehabilitation plan passes council, the should-we-tear-it-down debate will be over for good, as no one has the appetite to demolish hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of new construction.

Even if council orders Waterfront Toronto to resume its environmental assessment, that report might take five years to complete — by which time the highway will be on the verge of closure.

Left-wing councillors say the options aren’t as black and white as the mayor’s office might make it seem.

Councillor Paula Fletcher says council could approve a year or two’s worth of repairs and expedite the environmental assessment. If the report calls for demolition, the city will have spent only around $30 million to $60 million rather than half a billion dollars.

Perks is considering whether the city should continue to make emergency-only repairs to maintain the roadway until the study is finished.

Toronto’s acting director of design and construction, John Kelly, said Wednesday that council can buy time with short-term measures such as buttressing trouble spots with timber — which the city is already doing in at least one area. But if repairs aren’t finished around the six-year timeframe, the portion east of Jarvis will have reached the “end of its life.” A section west of Yonge St. between between Strachan Ave. and Rees St. won’t be far behind.

Exactly why the assessment was put on hold is unclear. Perks suggested at Wednesday’s budget committee that the Ford administration got the report shelved through “stealth.”

Waterfront Toronto CEO John Campbell says the decision was made in consultation with the city.

“It was put on hold in the fall of 2010 in order to give the new administration — post-election — a chance to opine on it and make sure it was one of their priorities,” said John Campbell, CEO of Waterfront Toronto.

Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, who chairs the public works committee and strongly opposes any Gardiner demolition, said this decision was widely known, and at the time no one from the left raised any concerns.

With news that the city’s main commuter artery is on the verge of becoming structurally unsound, councillors spent Wednesday blaming one another for the dire situation.

Minnan-Wong pointed a finger at former mayor David Miller.

In the 2008 vote, council asked staff to stop all non-emergency repair work since it was possible the Gardiner was just years from being torn down. As a result, about $40 million of budgeted construction was never done in subsequent years.

“The last administration used Band-Aid solutions … This has contributed in some measure to the circumstances we’re in today,” Minnan-Wong said.

Councillor Doug Ford told the budget committee, “We are now paying the price for this shortsightedness.”

But speaking a news conference alongside deputy city manager John Livey, Kelly dismissed the suggestion that the last four years “starved” the Gardiner into its current state.

“I don’t believe that a deck replacement could have been averted if we had done other repairs,” Kelly said.

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